Visit to Bielefeld

While in Europe recently, I had a very intereting two day visit to Bielefeld, one of the cities participating in PIE, organised by the Education Bureau of the city. While I observed much of interest, three things stood out for me from the visit. These were the innovative Learning Report prepared for the city by the Education Bureau, a visit to the History Museum of the city, and a visit to a school project called the Luttergarten.

The Learning Report for 2012 is innovative in extending beyond the education system and presenting a wider sweep of learning in many contexts. The city was assisted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the SOFI Centre at the University of Gottigen in the preparation of the report which adopted the format and methodology developed by the former Canadian Council on Learning for its Composite Learning Index, and then applied by the Bertelsmann Foundation in its European Lifelong Learning Indicators (ELLI) report. However, no city up to now has applied this methodology in presenting a Learning Report for the individual city. The approach adopted uses the four pillars of learning (Learning to Know, Do, Learning to understand others, Learning to be) articulated by the UNESCO Delors Report in 1996. Bielefeld intends to update the report in future to measre progress.

 The excellent History Museum of Bielefeld provides a portrait of the manufacruring history of Bielefeld and shows the importance of heritage in the identity of a city.

The Luttergarden is an innovative project in a secondary school in which students developed vand maintained a garden in boxes, including fruit and vegetables which were sold to provide income for further development. Local residents assisted with the garden, mainlly older retired people so that the project involved intergenerational learning. I had a briefing with the local press focussed on the PASCAL International Exchanges, but the report which appeared in the press the next day bore the title " Zwischen Hongkong und Luttergartenh" I feel the press on this occasion got it right. Small innovative projects like the Luttergarten are very important in the development of innovative and sustainable Learning Cities. Can further examples of such projects be posted on the PIE website please?